


A Holy Number

by ahausonfire (thisiswherethefishlives)



Series: Different Names for the Same Things [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: (and also Nursey - but shhhhhh - it's a secret), Dex feels very strongly about the number five, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 12:39:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8446159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisiswherethefishlives/pseuds/ahausonfire
Summary: Will doesn't put much stock into superstition, and he usually isn't one to look for signs... but he has always loved the number five. And it's kind of becoming a problem.





	

For as long as he can remember, Will has always loved the number five.

It's just... it's a good number. Nothing multiplies as easily as five (though his sisters always _loved_ to remind him about multiplying by two, or by one, or by zero, or by ten... but what they’ve never understood is that those 'easier' numbers just feel like cheating (also... ten is a multiple of five, so...). You have to work a little with five. It’s something that Will’s always found comfort in. He’s never trusted things that come too easy.

He comes from a _long line_ of fives - his great-grandmother had been one of five, and his grandmother had been one of five, and his father had been one of five. Will _would_ have been another link in that chain, but then his parents had Abby... and look, he doesn't want to say she was an _accident_ (though the word has been known to rattle around in the back of his head when she's been particularly bratty and he's been particularly cruel), but she sure did mess up the pattern.

It’s not just his lineage either. Each one of his hands has five fingers (a worthy feat after working on the lobster boats) and each foot has five toes. And, though he'd never admit to noticing, because it's the kind of thing Nurse would either love or chirp him over (or both), Will has a perfect five-pointed star of freckles over his heart. 

So, yeah. Will doesn't put much stock into superstition, and he usually isn't one to look for signs... but he has always loved the number five. And it's kind of becoming a problem.

Because Derek Malik Nurse? He's the absolute worst... and he's _perfect_.

Five, five, five. Five letters in each name (first, middle, last), five syllables when they're strung together, five well-manicured nails on each hand and each foot, and he's hot. He's really, really, _unfortunately_ hot. And he’s smart. And he’s funny. Also, just to be clear, he’s really hot. And for some reason, despite the long list of negative adjectives that Will could assign him at any given time, all he can focus on is the way his ten fingers would feel spanning over Derek's skin, and how nice it would be to press kisses into his skin - multiples of five, and ten, and twenty. Endless kisses pressed _everywhere_ and it's a fuckin' problem.

It's a problem because it's getting harder _not_ to touch Derek the way that he wants to. To see if his skin is as smooth and as perfect as it looks. To test if he's really the byproduct of some higher power that knows exactly what Will wants. A higher power fueled by multiples of five.

The whole thing... it's just really, really, _really_ fuckin' annoying, because he's in too deep.

He looks at Derek and he quantifies his desire:

5 - The syllables it would take to tell Derek he likes him;

10 - The likelihood, in percentage, that Derek could like him back;

15 - The estimated number of kisses it would take to span from one of Derek's shoulders to the other;

20 - The amount of nights so far that Will has slept across a room from Derek on roadies this year, close enough to be near, far enough not to touch;

25 - The number of reasons why Will knows this is a bad idea - he's got them numbered and listed in Excel - it's very efficient;

50 - The actual, accurate number of times (because, _yes_ , Will maintains a running tally) that Bitty has sent him a _look_ when Derek's around... as if it's easy. As if everyone's collegiate hockey romance works out for the best;

75 - The tally that he's maintaining of looks that Derek's given him that thill him to his core. Because sometimes a look isn't just a _look_ , and sometimes it feels like Derek's in on the joke;

100 - The percentage that Will knows he'll fuck this up. 

It's the hundred that really fucks with him... because he _knows_ that he's going to fuck this up. He knows it with every fibre of his being.

But - and this is the thing of it - he's going to do it anyways. Because... he's twenty-five reasons that it won't work out, but they seem like _nothing_ compared to the fives running rampant through everything that makes up Derek: his fingers, his toes, his name.

There's a 100% chance that this won't work out. But Will _really_ loves the number five.


End file.
